Nearly one lakh new companies were registered in the country last fiscal, with a substantial chunk set up in the business services sector.

Interestingly, just 216 foreign companies were set up during 2013-14 period.

Latest data from the Corporate Affairs Ministry show that 98,473 companies together having an authorised capital of nearly Rs 39,000 crore were registered in different parts of the country in the last financial year.

"... predominant share of companies were in business services (32,254) followed by manufacturing (14,996), real estate and renting (10,752), trading (10,646) and construction (10,335)," as per a Ministry report for the month of March 2014.

The maximum number of new companies were established in Maharashtra, Delhi and West Bengal.

"During the financial year 2013-14, a total of 216 foreign companies were registered," it noted.

With the new ones coming up, the total number of registered companies stood at 13,94,819 at the end of March this year. However, out of them, only 9,52,433 were active, according to official records.

Maharashtra had 2,83,588 companies, followed by Delhi (2,61,456) and West Bengal (1,81,182).

At the end of March, Delhi had the maximum number of active companies (1,89,441) followed by Maharashtra (1,88,768) and West Bengal (1,34,292).

According to the Ministry report, 65 per cent of companies had authorised capital of less than or equal to Rs 10 lakh each whereas only about 2 per cent of the entities had authorised capital of above Rs 10 crore each.